As darkness descends upon a gray Anchorage day, I realize it is good that I have interesting birding in south-east Alaska to look forward to for the next week. Today’s brief Anchorage stopover between Kodiak and my Juneau trip did not allow time for any birding, what with morning commitments and afternoon must-be-done chores.
In fact, in spite of there being quite a few possibilities just in our yard for adding to my AK year list, I was only able to add one new species to my year list today – Steller’s Jay. I did see my usual Pine Grosbeaks, Common Ravens and flyover Mallards, but the rest of my usual yard birds that could have been year birds were not around at all.
The weather here has been warm 30s and 40s and most of the snow cover is gone in the city (but not on the mountains), so apparently the birds are mostly not feeling the need to visit my feeders. One of the hardest things to learn about big years is that there are doldrums in being able to find new year-birds, even in January, due to the birds and due to where and when you are able to go birding.
Hopefully, tomorrow will be a different story. Stay tuned.
53 species so far
Lynn Barber's Birding Blog 